Issue 12, 2020

Light-enhanced hypoxia-responsive and azobenzene cleavage-triggered size-shrinkable micelles for synergistic photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy

Abstract

Hypoxia is an important pathological phenomenon due to uncontrolled cancer cell proliferation and insufficient blood flow, which can be used to design hypoxia-responsive nanocarriers for the intelligent treatment of tumor. However, it is difficult to obtain the response of hypoxia-responsive polymers corresponding to the degree of hypoxia in the tumor sites. Therefore, hypoxia-responsive azobenzene-centered copolymers polyoligo (ethylene glycol) methacrylate-block-poly(ε-caprolactone)-azobenzene-poly(ε-caprolactone)-block-poly oligo (ethylene glycol) (POEGMA-b-PCL-Azo-PCL-b-POEGMA) were synthesized and further self-assembled into spherical micelles. Doxorubicin (DOX) and chlorine e6 (Ce6) were encapsulated inside the micelles. The photodynamic therapy (PDT) of Ce6 could be applied to further amplify the hypoxia condition in the tumor sites through oxygen consumption on laser irradiation (660 nm). Under this condition, the DOX/Ce6-loaded micelles progressively formed spherical micelles with a small size due to the cleavage of azobenzene, thus allowing the controlled release of DOX. The formed smaller micelles could significantly avoid the formation of large aggregates, which is beneficial for clinical application. Moreover, Ce6 would continuously convert oxygen to singlet oxygen (1O2), thus showing toxicity to cancer cells. Both in vitro and intracellular studies confirmed that our “all-in-one” micelles showed a superior synergistic effect of photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy.

Graphical abstract: Light-enhanced hypoxia-responsive and azobenzene cleavage-triggered size-shrinkable micelles for synergistic photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Feb 2020
Accepted
09 May 2020
First published
11 May 2020

Biomater. Sci., 2020,8, 3348-3358

Light-enhanced hypoxia-responsive and azobenzene cleavage-triggered size-shrinkable micelles for synergistic photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy

Z. Xu, C. Pan and W. Yuan, Biomater. Sci., 2020, 8, 3348 DOI: 10.1039/D0BM00328J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements